Recycle Bin

After restarting my pc after a little clean up all the icons are missing from the desktop. i can access all my programs through the windows task manager but cannot find or open the recycle bin to find the deleted files. Is there a line you can type in using the windows task manager to allow me to open the recycle bin. Any help would be gratefully received.
I am using windows XP.

 

Show hidden files and folders and uncheck 'Hide protected operating system files'.

Go to C:\RECYCLER and it's subdirectory and you see the files in the recycle bin.

You can right-click on a file to restore or delete to delete permanently.

 

Thank you for your help but unfortunately my pc wont open windows explorer or the recycle bin by typing in at the windows task manager. I have tried to restore to an earlier point but all the restore points before this happened have also gone. should i bite the bullet and reinstall windows?

 

What you're describing could very well be the result of a virus. Post a HijackThis log on the Malware Removal forum just to make sure.

Go to this site http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/threat_analytics/hijackthis.php?page=download.

Click on 'Download HijackThis Installer'.

*Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop, or to the location where you normally download.
*Doubleclick on HJTInstall.exe.
*Click on Install.
*By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis.
*Once installed, it will launch Hijackthis.
*Click on the 'Do a system scan and save a logfile button'. It will scan and the log will open in notepad.
*Click Save to save the log file.
*Click on 'Edit > Select All' then click on 'Edit > Copy' (or Ctrl-C) to copy the entire contents of the log.
*Start a new thread and Paste (or Ctrl-V) the log.

*DO NOT have Hijackthis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required.